


The Secret Love of Sean O’Connell

by Leider_ss



Category: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
Genre: M/M, One-Sided Attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-19
Updated: 2015-05-19
Packaged: 2018-03-31 06:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3968245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leider_ss/pseuds/Leider_ss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just like Walter Mitty’s adventures are kept secret to Walter himself, Sean O’Connell’s love is kept secret to Sean himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Secret Love of Sean O’Connell

**Author's Note:**

> Not Beta read. Just some idea I got from top of my mind after watching the movie for the third time. I do not own anything.

True Adventurers like Sean O’Connell never stay with anyone for too long. Their hearts are too big, their minds are too deep, and their stubbornness for freedom refuses to make compromise for anyone. They are bad choices for cultivating a relationship.

That is what Sean O’Connell had in mind when he decided to live a reclusive style of life in his late 20s.

Yet he cultivated a relationship with Walter Mitty, a negative assets manager at Life Magazine. Through words and letters they get to know each other. And that, once started, lasted 10 years.

Mitty is a soft Kitty. He swallows down all the bad things that’s thrown on him and get poked around all the time. He is not exactly a good person, he sneaks out pre-processed photos back home and thought no one noticed. But he’s an idealist. He worked in the same place for 15 years because he believed in its motto. He served that motto with the best years of his life. Yet he is, after all, a Kitty, too afraid to live by that motto himself. 

In Sean’s eyes, even now that Walter is on top of Himalayas in ungoverned Afghanistan, he still is a Kitty.

And that’s because Sean O’Connell himself is a snow leopard, a “ghost cat”. He is strong enough to throw away all standards and restrictions and enjoy his life alone without (almost) ever being seen. So when Walter Mitty calls his name through that thick goggles and windblocker gear, he is quite surprised, since they’ve never met or talked before. But then again, who else would launch a Nikon F3/T Titanium on this snow-covered anarchist piece of rock except him?

He’s much delighted, even exhilarated to see that his little Kitty finally stretches his arms. He’s not that unhappy about losing the negative. After all, sending this photo which was taken from the perspective of a stalker to your secretly loved one took some courage. And the idea that if the negative is never found then Walter would never have the slightest guess about Sean’s secret about him is almost relaxing.

At the end of the day they are forced to separate. Walter needs to find his negative, Sean needs to get to the next set. Sean O’Connell smiles when waving.  
He then suddenly remembers the day when he squeezed himself into the shadows of the Life Magazine building just to take that picture, when Kitty was checking his photo with eyes gazed on like the most precious thing on this world.

His feet desired to step forward, his tongue desired to shout “wait!”, but he stopped himself. And then the moment passed.

 

 

A few weeks later, when Sean O’Connell was reading his record book from his assistant, he saw that the negative was found and printed. Arrived with it was Walter’s letter filled with gratification. So he didn’t get it. Well, that’s good too, he says to himself.

“It’s a shame. He’s beautiful.” His heart says otherwise. 

During Sean’s long waiting hours on mountains and deserts, he sometimes fantasizes about hiring Walter as his negative asset assistant. He definitely needs help in this. The subtle difference between a photograph seen from camera and that after negative processing is huge in extreme weather conditions. And Walter wouldn’t be able to deny that opportunity, now that he’s happy to take on adventures and needs money. They would make good partners, just sitting and watching, chat a few every once in a while.

He savors the picture in his mind for a while, and then continues with his waiting.

 

The moment of loving is enough.

I don’t need to tell someone. I just want to stay in it.

And that is good enough for me.


End file.
